Biobanks and human health research: Balancing progress and protections

Biobanks are repositories that store human biological materials and their associated data. They are rapidly becoming part of national and international networks and give rise to unique ethico-regulatory issues. Whether consent is informed and whether this term should be used when specimens are collected for biobank research is questionable. Where risks occur, they are usually social and relate to identifiability. Public trust and confidence are important for the success of this type of research. Consensus is growing that governance of biobanks should be harmonised. Controlled specimen and data access agreements are essential. The South African National Health Act (NHA) and its Regulations, that provide the foundation for the legal framework with regard to human tissue and research in South Africa, are silent on the issue of biobanks and the law lags behind while science and technology advance rapidly. The use of biobank assets will lead to significant benefits in human health and should be encouraged while taking account of the associated ethical, legal and social issues and working towards a balance between these two positions

Estimated use of abacavir among adults and children enrolled in public sector antiretroviral therapy programmes in Gauteng Province, South Africa

In South Africa, abacavir (ABC) is currently recommended as part of first- and second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-positive paediatric patients. Concerns about overprescribing of the drug, particularly to adults, led to an analysis of ABC use in public sector ART programmes. We investigated current prescription of the drug to adults and children accessing ART in 4 public sector programmes across Gauteng Province, South Africa. ABC was almostexclusively prescribed to children initiating ART and adults requiring regimen changes due to drug toxicities. Patterns of ABC use among HIV-positive paediatric patients followed national ART treatment guidelines on the application of the drug. Although ABC is commonly used in the private sectorfor adults, the current national ART treatment guidelines for adults and adolescents should include ABC as an alternative to standard first- or second-line ART

Estimated use of abacavir among adults and children enrolled in public sector antiretroviral therapy programmes in Gauteng, South Africa

In South Africa, abacavir (ABC) is currently recommended as part of first- and second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-positive paediatric patients. Concerns about overprescribing of the drug, particularly to adults, led to an analysis of ABC use in public sector ART programmes. We investigated current prescription of the drug to adults and children accessing ART in 4 public sector programmes across Gauteng Province, South Africa. ABC was almost exclusively prescribed to children initiating ART and adults requiring regimen changes due to drug toxicities. Patterns of ABC use among HIV-positive paediatric patients followed national ART treatment guidelines on the application of the drug. Although ABC is commonly used in the private sector for adults, the current national ART treatment guidelines for adults and adolescents should include ABC as an alternative to standard first- or second-line ART

Managerial stereotypes over time:the rise of feminine leadership

PurposeA key obstacle to women’s advancement to managerial roles and leadership positions is the stereotype of the “good” manager, which is characterized by masculine traits. Although this gendered managerial stereotype has been very persistent over the past decades, Powell et al. (2021) recently showed that business students in the USA reported a decreased preference for masculine leadership traits and an increased preference for feminine leadership traits, resulting in a so-called “androgynous” manager profile that contains both masculine and feminine characteristics. This study aims to replicate Powell et al.’s (2021) findings among an older sample of working adults in The Netherlands.Design/methodology/approachThe present study tests for changes in the managerial stereotype in a sample of 5,542 Dutch employees across 2005, 2010 and 2020.FindingsIn line with Powell et al. (2021), the results confirm employees’ decreased preference for masculine and increased preference for feminine leadership traits in 2020 compared to 2005. Nevertheless, Dutch employees still favored masculine over feminine leadership traits in 2020, contrary to the findings by Powell et al. (2021).Practical implicationsThese observed changes in the managerial stereotype could prove to be an important step forward for women’s advancement to management and leadership positions.Originality/valueWith the present study, the authors demonstrate cross-cultural generalizability and conclude that the stereotype of a “good manager” is not only changing among US business students but also among working adults in The Netherlands. Overall, this study strengthens the observation that the stereotype of a “good manager” is becoming less gendered

Antecedents of leaders' power sharing:The roles of power instability and distrust

Although previous research has identified various beneficial consequences of power sharing, less research has examined antecedents of leaders’ power sharing. To address this gap, across five studies, the present research identifies important social and psychological barriers to leaders’ power sharing. Studies 1a, 1b, and 2 demonstrate that the instability of a leader’s power position undermines his or her power sharing. Study 3 then demonstrates that distrust acts as a key psychological mechanism that can explain this relationship. Then, in Study 4, we distinguish between two dimensions of distrust and examine the moderating role of subordinates’ seniority. We show that subordinates’ seniority moderates the indirect association between power instability and power sharing, via benevolence and ability distrust, such that this indirect relationship is more pronounced for relatively senior (compared to junior) subordinates. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights into when, why, and with whom leaders are more or less willing to share their power

HIV care intervention - limited resources, limitless opportunities

This case is intended to inspire HIV caregivers and patients that, even in the most trying circumstances of limited resources, AIDS can be managed effectively with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and perseverance. Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine Vol. 7 (1) 2006: pp. 44-4

A data-driven linguistic characterization of hallucinated voices in clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers

Background: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are heterogeneous regarding phenomenology and etiology. This has led to the proposal of AVHs subtypes. Distinguishing AVHs subtypes can inform AVHs neurocognitive models and also have implications for clinical practice. A scarcely studied source of heterogeneity relates to the AVHs linguistic characteristics. Therefore, in this study we investigate whether linguistic features distinguish AVHs subtypes, and whether linguistic AVH-subtypes are associated with phenomenology and voice-hearers' clinical status. Methods: Twenty-one clinical and nineteen non-clinical voice-hearers participated in this study. Participants were instructed to repeat verbatim their AVHs just after experiencing them. AVH-repetitions were audio-recorded and transcribed. AVHs phenomenology was assessed using the Auditory Hallucinations Rating Scale of the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales. Hierarchical clustering analyses without a priori group dichotomization were performed using quantitative measures of sixteen linguistic features to distinguish sets of AVHs. Results: A two-AVHs-cluster solution best partitioned the data. AVHs-clusters significantly differed in linguistic features (p < .001); AVHs phenomenology (p < .001); and distribution of clinical voice-hearers (p < .001). The “expanded-AVHs” cluster was characterized by more determiners, more prepositions, longer utterances (all p < .01), and mainly contained non-clinical voice-hearers. The “compact-AVHs” cluster had fewer determiners and prepositions, shorter utterances (all p < .01), more negative content, higher degree of negativity (both p < .05), and predominantly came from clinical voice-hearers. Discussion: Two voice-speech clusters were recognized, differing in syntactic-grammatical complexity and negative phenomenology. Our results suggest clinical voice-hearers often hear negative, “compact-voices”, understandable under Broca's right hemisphere homologue and memory-based mechanisms. Conversely, non-clinical voice-hearers experience “expanded-voices”, better accounted by inner speech AVHs models